Foundations:
Agriculture and Early Civilizations

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4

Hammurabi's Law Code was the first written set of laws and had a great impact on the development civilization.

Homework for the Week

World Geography Quiz on Monday.
• Outline (Cornell Notes) Building Blocks of Civilization Due: Tuesday.
• Week 2: Big Picture Questions.
• Outline (Big Picture Notes) "To farm or Not to Farm" Chapter 6 from Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. Due: Thursday.
• Newsgroup posting: Read the Document, "Hammurabi's Law Code". Complete a SOAPS anaysis of the document. Due: Friday.
• Outline (Cornell Notes) Chapter 3a Civilization Notes part 1 Due: Tuesday.
• Research Cube: Assignment Explained. Due: Monday 30th.

Skills

• How to Write a Thesis?
• PERSIA (Cultural Analysis)
• SOAPS (Document Analysis)

Pre–History:

• Early Man Timeline:
• Early Man Lecture:
  • Homo erectus had a large brain, sophisticated tools and could control fire.
  • Homo sapiens had a brain with large frontal regions for conscious and reflective thought. Had the advantage of intelligence over other species.
    • Used knives, spears, bows and arrows.
  • Early Human Migrations out of Africa to Asia and Europe.
  • Land bridges enabled them to populate Indonesia, New Guinea and between 40,000 and 25,000 years ago, North America.
• Women in Prehistory
• Venus Figurines and the Venus of Willendorf.
• Paleolithic Society
  • Hunters and Gathers lived an egalitarian existence.
  • Nomadic Life Style – developed clans and tribes.
  • Practiced religious rituals.
  • Cave paintings 32,000 years ago and early flute instrutments 30,000 years ago.

Agriculture Revolutions:

• Neolithic Era
• Neolithic Lecture
• Earliest Evidence found between 10,000 to 8000 B.C.E.
• Slash and burn cultivation.
• Agricultural development was probably triggered by:
  • Population increases from climatic changes.
  • End of the ice age resulted in a decrease of larger game animals.
• Results in Specialization: People no longer need to spend all their time finding food.
• Agricultural Revolutions Review.

Early Civilizations:

• Growth of Cities: First Towns Map
• Lecture: River Valley Civilizations
• Define and Compare the Characteristics of Early Civilizations